When I was a young lad, one of my favorite comedians was a gentleman named Eddie Lawrence. Eddie is one of those performers who everyone from my generation heard and he was constantly being imitated and plagiarized…but few actually knew his name. He had several very popular records but he preferred to spend his time working on Broadway and on his drawing and painting. But I loved his records and I can recall quoting them and getting big laughs on the playground of Westwood Elementary School. I can also recall the sheer joy I felt many years later when I got to meet Eddie and hire him to do his famous routine on a couple episodes of Garfield and Friends. I sat there in my little director's chair, pretending I was actually directing his performance, all the time thinking, "Hey, that's Eddie Lawrence and he's doing lines I wrote." A very nice, clever man.
Today's video link is to a cut from one of his albums…but that's a prelude to sending you over to Kliph Nesteroff's site where you can read a recent interview with Eddie. I wish someone like Leno or Letterman or Jon Stewart would get the guy on TV again because boy, could we use him now…